Foreign and Commonwealth Office

China: Uighurs

Paul Girvan: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what representations he has made to his Chinese counterpart on the treatment of the Uyghur community in the Xinjiang Region of that country.

Nigel Adams: The British Government regularly makes representations directly to the Chinese Government about the treatment of Uyghurs and other ethnic minorities in Xinjiang. Most recently, on 9 March the Foreign Secretary raised his concerns with his Chinese counterpart, Foreign Minister and State Councillor Wang Yi. On 5 March, I did the same with the Chinese Ambassador in London.The UK also continues to raise concerns about Xinjiang publicly in multilateral settings, including at the 43rd session of the UN Human Rights Council on 10 March during our 'Item 4' national statement.

Hong Kong: Freedom of Expression

Afzal Khan: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what assessment his Department has made of the effect of the withdrawal of press credentials from journalists from the Wall Street Journal, Washington Post and New York Times on the preservation of freedom of speech in Hong Kong.

Nigel Adams: As Lord Ahmad said in the Lords on 19 March, the Chinese Government's announcement that they will prevent certain American journalists from working in China and Macao restricts transparency at an important time. The suggestion by the Chinese MFA that this measure may apply in Hong Kong is particularly concerning. The Sino-British Joint Declaration is clear. It sets out that immigration decisions are the sole responsibility of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government, and freedom of the press is guaranteed. It is imperative that these rights and freedoms are fully respected.

China: Uighurs

Mr Barry Sheerman: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what recent discussions he has had with Cabinet colleagues on the detainment of people in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, China.

Nigel Adams: The British Government regularly makes representations directly to the Chinese Government about the treatment of Uyghurs and other ethnic minorities in Xinjiang. Most recently, on 9 March the Foreign Secretary raised his concerns with his Chinese counterpart, Foreign Minister and State Councillor Wang Yi. On 5 March, I did the same with the Chinese Ambassador in London.The UK continues to raise concerns about Xinjiang publicly in multilateral settings, including at the 43rd session of the UN Human Rights Council on 10 March during our 'Item 4' national statement.

Department of Health and Social Care

Health Services: EU Action

Maria Eagle: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he is participating in daily EU Health Ministers conference calls; and if he will make a statement.

Edward Argar: Holding answer received on 24 March 2020



The United Kingdom left the European Union on 31 January 2020. As the UK is no longer a Member State, we no longer attend EU Health Ministers’ meetings. However, the UK continues to collaborate with the EU to tackle this outbreak by attending Health Security Committee meetings, sharing information through the Early Warning and Response System (EWRS) and through engaging bilaterally with the European Commission and other European and international partners.

Coronavirus: Public Health

Caroline Lucas: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, which languages public health information and guidance on covid-19 guidance will be translated into by the Government; if he will make it his policy to carry out a public information campaign to ensure this information reaches people whose first language is not English; and if he will make a statement.

Helen Whately: As part of the Government's work to ensure the population are informed about COVID-19 and how best to respond, we have translated the ‘Stay at home guidance for households with possible coronavirus (COVID-19)’ and the ‘COVID 19: guidance on social distancing for everyone in the United Kingdom and protecting older people and vulnerable adults’ into a range of languages. These are the critical pieces of guidance that are relevant to a general public audience.The translations include Polish, Welsh, Arabic (Modern), French, Simplified Chinese (Mandarin), Traditional Chinese (Cantonese), Punjabi, Urdu, Bengali, Gujarati, and Portuguese. These translations can be found at the following links:https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/covid-19-stay-at-home-guidancehttps://www.gov.uk/government/publications/covid-19-guidance-on-social-distancing-and-for-vulnerable-peopleThe Government will continue to keep this under review and assess where information needs to be translated into other languages. In the meantime, many local authorities are making arrangements to translate into languages that are widely spoken in their area.

NHS: Contracts

Chris Green: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether people working in (a) warehouse, (b) packing and (c) delivery services of manufacturers of medical devices supplied to the NHS are classified as key workers.

Helen Whately: The Government has published guidance for key workers, specifically relating to schools, which can be found at the following link:https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-maintaining-educational-provision/guidance-for-schools-colleges-and-local-authorities-on-maintaining-educational-provisionThe guidance states that ‘those working as part of the health and social care supply chain, including producers and distributers of medicines and medial and personal and protective equipment’ are classified as key workers.

Dementia

Dr Lisa Cameron: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, when his Department plans to publish its strategy for the delivery the dementia moonshot.

Helen Whately: There is currently no planned date for publication of a strategy to deliver the dementia moonshot. However, the Government remains strongly committed to supporting research into dementia. We will be setting out our new plans for supporting people with dementia in England for 2020-2025 later this year.

Dementia

Dr Lisa Cameron: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether the Comprehensive Spending review will include funding for the delivery of the dementia ,moonshot.

Helen Whately: The Government is strongly committed to research into dementia, and to the moonshot. We will be setting out our new plans for supporting people with dementia in England for 2020-2025 later this year. Further details on priorities and timings for the comprehensive spending review will be set out in due course.

Coronavirus: Delivery Services

Mr Barry Sheerman: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether (a) warehouse and (b) delivery staff are classified as key workers during the covid-19 outbreak.

Helen Whately: Holding answer received on 21 April 2020



The Government considers warehouse and delivery staff alongside other staff involved in the provision of key goods to be key workers during the pandemic. These workers all play a critical role in the tackling of the COVID-19 outbreak. Further guidance on key workers can be found at the following link: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-maintaining-educational-provision/guidance-for-schools-colleges-and-local-authorities-on-maintaining-educational-provision

Ministry of Defence

Aerospace Industry: Contracts

Mr Stephen Morgan: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that the outcomes of contracts between his Department and companies within the aerospace industry are not adversely affected by the effect of the covid-19 outbreak on those companies.

Jeremy Quin: The Ministry of Defence (MOD) is closely monitoring the impact of Covid-19 on defence suppliers, including those within the aerospace industry. We remain closely engaged with our key suppliers at this critical time and have also established regular meetings with the mid-tier and small and medium-sized enterprise communities to ensure we understand the impact the Covid-19 outbreak is having throughout the supply chain. In line with our usual payment policies, we are ensuring that outstanding invoices are paid promptly and are also encouraging prime and mid-tier suppliers to pay invoices as quickly as possible to their sub-tiers.

Aerospace Industry: Contracts

Mr Stephen Morgan: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that payments made to companies that have aerospace contracts with that Department are timely.

Jeremy Quin: The Ministry of Defence (MOD) is alert to the financial challenges that the Covid-19 outbreak is placing on all our suppliers, including those in the aerospace industry. In line with our usual payment policies, we are ensuring that outstanding invoices are paid promptly and are also encouraging primes and mid-tier suppliers to pay invoices as quickly as possible to their sub-tiers. In addition, the MOD is enacting the Government Procurement Policy Note 02/20 published in March 2020, which sets out information and guidance for public bodies on paying suppliers to ensure service continuity during and after the Covid-19 outbreak. That includes ensuring that suppliers at risk will continue to be paid as normal and consideration of interim payments will be made where appropriate.

Aerospace Industry: Contracts

Mr Stephen Morgan: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what assessment he has made of the effect of the financial security of the aerospace sector on SMEs in the supply chain for Government contracts.

Jeremy Quin: The Ministry of Defence (MOD) has processes in place to routinely monitor the financial health of all its major suppliers, drawing on both internal and external analysis, and open-source financial information. Regular meetings are also held with the mid-tier and small and medium-sized enterprise communities. The MOD will continue to work closely with colleagues in the Cabinet Office and other Government Departments to monitor risk across the Government's supplier base, especially in light of the current Covid-19 situation.

Department for Work and Pensions

Universal Credit

Chris Stephens: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 5 February 2020 to Question 10759, what the value of deductions to universal credit payments has been, by parliamentary constituency; and from how many claimants those deductions were taken, in each of the 12 months prior to August 2019.

Chris Stephens: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 5 February 2020 to Question 10759, how many claimants had deductions taken from their universal credit payments in each parliamentary constituency in August 2019.

Will Quince: This Government is committed to providing a strong welfare safety-net for those who need it. Our deductions policy strikes a fair balance between a claimant’s need to meet their financial obligations and their ability to ensure they can meet their day-to-day needs. Since October 2019, Universal Credit deductions are set at a maximum of 30% of a claimant’s standard allowance, down from 40% previously. The requested information surrounding deductions to Universal Credit payments by parliamentary constituency is shown in the attached table.



Additional data deductions table
(Excel SpreadSheet, 111.17 KB)

Redundancy: Coronavirus

Dan Jarvis: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether her Department has plans to publish guidance for people that have been made redundant as a result of covid-19 on the JobCentre Plus website in order to promote social distancing by reducing attendance at job centres.

Mims Davies: Holding answer received on 21 April 2020



All face to face appointments have been suspended so that jobcentres are closed to the public except for in exceptional circumstances to minimise risk to the public and staff. Gov.uk already contains information and guidance for people who are being made redundant. This information has been updated as appropriate to inform the public that face to face appointments are currently not required. In addition, the pages that contain information about claiming benefits have been updated to say that customers do not need to attend interviews at the moment because of Covid-19, and that DWP will contact them should we require more information to enable us to process their claim.

Social Security Benefits: Coronavirus

Kerry McCarthy: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate she has made of how many and what proportion of people need support accessing food; and what proportion of these people need support as a result of the covid-19 outbreak.

Will Quince: Holding answer received on 21 April 2020



No such estimate has been made, but this government has been clear we will support people through this unprecedented time. This Government is delivering free food boxes to many vulnerable people and have ensured supermarkets prioritise them for online delivery or click-and-collect slots. The Shielding Service has been set up to support people identified as ‘extremely vulnerable’ and this service has made over 564,234 food deliveries to date. This Government has taken a number of steps to support people financially during the Covid 19 outbreak. The COVID-19 Bill offers assistance through the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme, Self-employment Income Support Scheme and Statutory Sick Pay. The benefits system has also been made more generous. We have increased Universal Credit and Working Tax Credit by £1,000 a year for the next 12 months, benefiting over 4 million of the most vulnerable households, and increased Local Housing Allowance rates, putting an average of £600 into people’s pockets this year.

Universal Credit: Coronavirus

Mr Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether she plans to publish information on the increase in the number of universal credit claimants by local authority area since the outbreak of covid-19.

Mims Davies: Holding answer received on 21 April 2020



Since the outbreak of COVID-19, the Universal Credit system has demonstrated its resilience and ability to deal with large increase in applications, ensuring we provide financial help to those in need. Using technology and automation Universal Credit delivers a modern and effective working-age welfare system, allowing our staff to concentrate on those people who require additional support. This approach is currently allowing us to continue to process new applications online and by telephone without the need to visit a Jobcentre. The most recent scheduled Universal Credit statistical release surrounding the caseload volume was on 21 April 2020: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/announcements/universal-credit-29-april-2013-to-12-march-2020

Occupational Pensions: Stoke-on-trent North

Jonathan Gullis: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many and what proportion of people in Stoke-on-Trent North constituency have (a) opted out after being auto-enrolled into a workplace pension and (b) saved more than the auto-enrolment minimum contribution.

Guy Opperman: In the Stoke-on-Trent North constituency since 2012, approximately 6,000 eligible jobholders have been automatically enrolled and 1,280 employers have met their duties.The Department does not hold data for individual constituencies in relation to opt outs or the number of individuals who have saved above the automatic enrolment minimum contribution level. We do know that overall, around 9% of automatically enrolled workers have chosen to opt out which is significantly below original estimates; and our latest evaluation report shows that, in April 2018 approximately 6.4 million eligible employees in the private sector were already meeting the April 2019 minimum contribution requirements. Automatic Enrolment Evaluation Report 2019, available via the following weblink: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/867634/automatic-enrolment-evaluation-report-2019.pdf The Pensions Regulator’s data on Automatic enrolment declaration of compliance by constituency, available via the following weblink:https://www.thepensionsregulator.gov.uk/en/document-library/research-and-analysis/data-requests

Universal Credit: Pensioners

Dr Lisa Cameron: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many pensioners have been required to make a claim for universal credit rather than pension credit due to the fact that their partner did not reach pension age between September and December 2019.

Guy Opperman: From September 2019 to December 2019, there were 2,200 new claims to Universal Credit where one member of the couple was above State Pension age and the other below. This change in the way support is provided to couples where one partner is below State Pension age will ensure that the same incentives to work and save for retirement apply to the younger partner as apply to other people of the same age. Unlike Pension Credit, which in most cases allows couple to retain only £10 a week of earned income, Universal Credit provides clear incentives for people to find and progress in work. The younger partner in a mixed-age couple claiming Universal Credit will get the personalised support provided by Work Coaches to help them find and progress in work where appropriate. If the younger partner is unable to work because of disability or caring requirements, additional amounts may be payable and conditionality requirements adjusted. No work-related requirements will be applied to the older partner.

Pensions: Advisory Services

Neil Coyle: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if the Money and Pensions Service will publish a report on the behavioural trials it has conducted on nudging savers towards pensions guidance.

Neil Coyle: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment she has made of implications for her policies of the results of the behavioural trials led by the Money and Pensions Service to encourage people to take guidance from Pension Wise before accessing their pension savings.

Guy Opperman: The Money and Pension Service (MaPS) has undertaken trials to gather evidence on the best way to encourage more people to take Pension Wise guidance before accessing their pension, fulfilling the requirement set out in the Financial Guidance and Claims Act 2018. MaPS appointed an independent contractor, the Behavioural Insights Team (BIT), to design, run, and evaluate the nudge to pension guidance trials. MaPS, with BIT will publish an evaluation report of the trials in Summer 2020.We will not pre-empt the results of the trials. We believe it is essential to use the evidence base that the trials on a stronger nudge to guidance will help to provide, to assess the impact of the trial results when they are available and co.nduct a consultation prior to implementing any regulations.

Pensions: Advisory Services

Neil Coyle: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what discusssions she has had with the Financial Conduct Authority on when it plans to (a) publish and (b) implement regulations on providing pension guidance on opting out of a workplace pension.

Guy Opperman: The Secretary of State has not had discussions with the Financial Conduct Authority in relation to this matter.

Cabinet Office

Migrant Workers

Sir Roger Gale: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what estimate he has made of the number of UK nationals working as contractors who have been replaced by specialists from overseas in the latest period for which figures are available.

Chloe Smith: The information requested falls under the remit of the UK Statistics Authority. I have therefore asked the Authority to respond.



UKSA Response 
(PDF Document, 60.19 KB)

Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport

Broadband: Coronavirus

Dr Luke Evans: To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what steps his Department is taking to meet the demands placed on the national broadband infrastructure to support people using the internet whilst in self-isolation.

Matt Warman: Overall, the telecoms sector is well prepared for the impacts of Covid-19 on national broadband infrastructure; its plans are extensive and there is currently sufficient network capacity to support the various needs of consumers during the pandemic. The Government recognises how important good connectivity is across the United Kingdom, as an increasing number of people have to self isolate. With that in mind, I am pleased that we have worked with the industry to announce additional measures to protect and support consumers, including the vulnerable and those who may become vulnerable due to Covid-19 related circumstances. A joint statement from the Government, industry and Ofcom was published on 29 March 2020 highlighting these commitments. This can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/government-agrees-measures-with-telecoms-companies-to-support-vulnerable-consumers-through-covid-19 I remain in regular touch with Ofcom and the relevant companies and will continue to keep the situation under review.

Broadcasting: Equality

Yasmin Qureshi: To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, with reference to page four of the report published by Ofcom on 18 September 2019 entitled Diversity and equal opportunities in television, whether the Government has plans to grant Ofcom powers to collect information from broadcasters on the characteristics of (a) age, (b) sexual orientation and (c) religion or belief.

Mr John Whittingdale: The Government has received representations from Ofcom regarding powers to collect information on additional diversity characteristics. Under the Communications Act 2003, Ofcom requires data from broadcasters related to equality of opportunity between men and women, people of different racial groups, and for disabled persons. The Government currently has no plans in this session to introduce legislation granting Ofcom additional data collection powers. The Government is committed to supporting the broadcasting sector in reflecting and providing for the whole of the UK population and encourages broadcasters to provide data to Ofcom on all the protected characteristics.

Telecommunications: Stoke On Trent

Jonathan Gullis: To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what steps his Department is taking to help ensure the effective delivery of broadband and telecommunications in (a) Stoke-on-Trent and (b) Kidsgrove.

Matt Warman: The Government’s contingency planning with industry and considerable investment in superfast broadband has ensured that the UK’s broadband and mobile networks have stood up well to the increase in home working as a result of COVID-19We are also ambitious to see further improvements in broadband and mobile coverage, including nationwide coverage of gigabit capable broadband, and are introducing a range of measures to deliver this ambition. The Telecommunications Infrastructure (Leasehold Property) Bill will make it easier for operators to deploy broadband in blocks of flats. In addition, in March, we announced that we would be legislating to mandate gigabit connectivity in new build homes, and that we will be investing £5 billion in bringing gigabit broadband to the hardest to reach areas of the UK.  The Government also announced on 9 March that it had agreed a £1 billion deal with the mobile network operators to deliver the Shared Rural Network. This will see operators collectively increase 4G mobile coverage throughout the UK to 95% by the end of 2025, underpinned by legally binding coverage commitmentsIn Stoke-on-Trent specifically, the Government has also provided £9.2 million to the City of Stoke-on-Trent for a Local Full Fibre Networks (LFFN) Wave 3 project. In partnership with VXFIBER, this project will develop a publicly owned and operated, open access and gigabit-capable, 60 mile long network with citywide coverage by spring 2021.